She left with the night's top honor for a talent performance. And she wasn't a singer.

Jones, 20, took the award at the final installment of Miss America preliminaries tonight as Miss Florida. A baton twirler, she was electric from the moment she walked out, manipulating one baton, then two, earning a standing ovation from Boardwalk Hall.

Her father, Charles Jones, was visibly emotional given her win, telling a photographer that Myrrhanda had sustained an injury to her ACL, her family uncertain if she could even perform. A student at the University of Florida, she competed against a formidable string of performances in what was arguably the best of three nights for the talent category.

Also in the talent group tonight was Miss New Jersey, Cara McCollum, who gave knowing winks to the crowd during her piano performance, taking her bench after first setting a candelabra on top of the instrument. She wore a flowing red sash off the back of her gown, and was one of two pianists tonight — the other was Miss Alaska.

One of several contestants who made their mark with song was Kelsey Griswold, Miss Oklahoma. She won Wednesday's swimsuit preliminary. The combined finesse possibly — though who knows — makes her something a contender for the final.

'Oh my God, oh Jesus, I'm so proud of her!' said an emotional Charles Jones, the father of Miss Florida Myrrhanda Jones, with his wife Lynn, left. Myrrhanda had just won the night's talent competition with her baton twirling performance. She performed with a knee brace and had to alter her routine because she tore an ACL ligament in one of her knees. Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger

The night's other big winner — for Lifestyle & Fitness in Swimsuit — was Miss Georgia, Carly Mathis. Mathis, 22, hails from a family of longtime pageant volunteers, her mother also a former contestant in the Miss Georgia pageant. Her walk in a white bikini had a retro air about it — for a beat the blond looked like she emerged from a 1960s Annette Funicello movie.

Vintage Miss America was in full effect this evening. If the triumph of baton — and the return of the giant pipe organ — wasn't enough to seal the deal, there was also a segment marking, at length, the 50th anniversary of Miss America 1964, Donna Axum (now Donna Axum Whitworth). She entered the stage with her four grandsons, who presented her with roses. Sam Haskell, Miss America CEO, cued up archival footage in which Axum, then Miss Arkansas, sang opera for her talent and actually joked around in between.

"When you are crowned Miss America," said Axum, addressing the audience, "It changes your life forever."

A running comedy segment throughout these preliminaries has involved the idea of the host, stand-up comedian Dena Blizzard, competing for the nonexistent title of Miss America 1928. The stunt culminated in an octogenarian Holocaust survivor named Itka — she has a book of poetry, and wants you to know it — taking the "title." Plucked from the audience on Tuesday night, she's been something of a crowd favorite (and likes to say, "this is my walker, this is my talker"). When Blizzard told the audience the woman had been in Auschwitz, Itka, too, received a standing ovation.

In the onstage question portion, Miss Iowa, Nicole Kelly, talked about "The Power of One," her pageant platform.

"Encourage people to share their story, whatever that may be," said Kelly, who was born without a left forearm and has spoken about how she was initially dismayed to find media exclusively fixating on her arm.

Miss Florida Myrrhanda Jones, after finding out she won the talent component of Thursday night preliminaries at Miss America. Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger

And there was a particularly interesting showing from Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail — yes, the one with the tattoos.

Looking as if she was out for blood, Vail really beat her onstage question into submission. Then skinned it, and cooked it for dinner. Seems like the idea of drawing attention to her inked skin is working into a viable plan to stand out by playing against the expected feminine presentation.

When asked about her "Empowering Women" platform, Vail pertly said this:

"I decided to courageously show my tattoos on the stage of Miss America," later adding: "I'm a mechanic. I'm an outdoorsman."

While there's no verdict on the questions segment, it's a fair bet Vail's been noticed, or at least somewhere miles ahead of Brittany Smith, Miss Illinois. That contestant managed to somehow, when asked about her platform — which falls under STEM, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math initiative embraced by the pageant — utter this:

"Get through these hard classes to do what you really want to do in life."